About: Our popular chain offers a variety of frozen treats including its famous Italian Ice, made fresh daily with real fruit, available in over sixty-five flavors, Old-Fashioned Frozen Custard, Milkshakes, Sundaes with Unlimited Toppings, Light Custard, Frozen Custard Cakes, Custard Cookie Sandwiches made with OREO®, layered Gelati as well as its signature Misto® and Blendini® creations. Since 1984, “Ice, Custard, Happiness,” has been the brand’s motto, and almost thirty years later, Rita’s is still dedicated to serving up a big dose of happiness with their freshly made, delicious, custom treats, in a fun-filled atmosphere. (Source: Rita’s Italian Ice on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/RitasItalianIceCompany/info)

The ambiance: You know, it’s like an ice cream shop, except you can get Italian Ice and custard, which is just that much closer to God.

Image courtesy franchiseexpo.com

The Munch: A friend mentioned Rita’s once to me, so when went made our trek to Pizzeria Limone and I saw it just right there, I decided I’d need to try it out with Mom. After all, Italian ice sounded intriguing, and who doesn’t love frozen custard. I ordered:

Gelati: Juicy Pear topped with Chocolate Custard

I know, the bright green and brown are kind of an off-putting color combination.

Mom said it was weird that I ordered Juicy Pear with Chocolate, and it’s probably not for everyone, but I think that’s an underused flavor combination. The Gelati is one of several different iterations of Italian Ice and/or Custard you can order at Rita’s, and it’s just ice with custard on top, giving you the best of both worlds. The ice flavors vary from day to day, but the custard flavors are pretty constant, and they are: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and orange cream (at this particular location).

The Italian ice is somewhere in between a Sno-Cone and Hawaiian Shaved Ice, and it’s AWESOME. I loved the flavor and texture, and then when you combined it with a spoonful of thick, creamy, indulgent frozen custard … mmm. I want to go there right now, but it’s Sunday and 1. I don’t patronize businesses on Sundays and 2. it’s not open anyhow.

The bill: ~$4 – $4.50. This was another Mom treat, so I’m unsure about the exact cost, but I don’t recall looking at the menu board and thinking, “Whoa that’s expensive.” Plus they have a punch card system (it’s an app, and a brilliant one at that), so after eight purchases, you get one free.

Total score: 8/10 — I wish there were more frozen custard flavors, but the Italian ice flavors are plentiful (and creative), so that makes up for it. I’ll definitely be hitting Rita’s up regularly during the summer months!

About: Here at Pizzeria Limone our passion is to create for our customers the best Neapolitan style pizza on the planet and deliver these pizzas in a warm, inviting fine-casual dining atmosphere. We began this journey by carefully creating our signature hand stretched dough that produces a lightly blistered crisp crust with a gentle crumb, and that’s only the beginning.

Then using only the finest ingredients we could find, we thoughtfully created sensational, mouthwatering pizzas that stay close to their Italian roots, but that are also innovative and delicious. We call this style of Pizza, “Neopolitan Revival”, where we believe we improve on an already legendary style of pizza.

Our journey to create the best pizzas in the world is far from complete as we continue to create exciting pizza combinations that will be sure to please the tastes of our discriminating clientele. Please come in and enjoy our incredible pizzas and you will agree that our passion has made its way into every aspect of Pizzeria Limone. Benvenuti! Source: Pizzeria Limone website, http://pizzerialimone.net/our-passion/

The ambiance: It reads a lot like a Chipotle for pizza — nice, open seating, loud music (that varies from Italian operettas to Pharrell Williams, which was weird, I’m just going to say that right now).

The Munch: Having now moved about 45 minutes away from our favorite pizzeria (Pizzeria 712, of course), I was really on a mission to find something that would be similar. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to find an exact fit, I’ll admit that I went into Limone with lower expectations. Shame, shame, shame on me. While it’s not as impressive with an ever-changing seasonal menu and a menu made up entirely of local and/or in-house made goods, the pizzas and salads are innovative and delicious. We ordered:

Tre Sorelle salad (half-size)

Insalata Caprese

Margherita Pizza

Pera Pizza

Limone Gelato

Limone Brownie

Okay, so Mom was in town, which meant more food and more wild abandon because she was paying for it. That being said, the prices are so reasonable, it kind of makes you wonder upon ordering whether it’s going to be top quality. Don’t question it — just accept that some places don’t use fancy china and silverware and then pass those savings on to you, while serving up high quality, delicious food. <—- the snobbiest thing I’ll ever write in this blog, I promise.

The salads were fantastic — the Tre Sorelle features freshly shaved parmesan cheese atop a bed of fresh greens, blackberries, thinly sliced pear, and pistachios, all tossed in a lemon vinaigrette, which I can say pretty confidently was one of the best salad dressings I’ve ever eaten. The Insalata Caprese was very similar to those I’ve eaten at other restaurants — fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, but they also added pistachios to the top and the added textural difference was a nice change-up from the usual.

I love a good brick-oven baked pizza, and theirs did not disappoint at all. The crust had a good chew to it, while being extremely thin and crisp along the edges. The Margherita had mozzarella, basil, and halved grape tomatoes, and it was really delicious. The Pera (a difficult decision for me to make, since I wanted to try all of them) had five cheeses, thinly sliced prosciutto, pears, red onion, pistachios, and basil atop an olive oil base rather than sauce, and the sweetness of the prosciutto and pears was a lovely change from more savory pizzas.

Pera Pizza

The flavor of the gelato was akin to frozen lemonade, and was extremely refreshing, though I was disappointed that it didn’t have the usual thick creaminess gelato has (if it’s going to include that much butterfat, I want to experience it). I would order it again, however, based upon taste alone, but it read a lot more like a sorbet. The brownie was moist, rich, and fudgy, with a perfectly sweet/tart lemon buttercream under fudge ganache. I was at first skeptical about the combination of lemon and chocolate, but it was delicious!

The bill: ~$40, based upon the prices listed on their online menu (I believe the Insalata Caprese is a dollar more these days, however). For all the food and different tastes we experienced, it was a fantastic deal!

Total score: 8/10 – I do wish they had a more seasonal menu (I’m curious what the offerings with blackberries are like in, say, November), and as aforementioned, the gelato could have been creamier, but I’m excited to return to try out the rest of the menu!